Free Republic

A long but don't-miss overview of yesterday's and last night's events, with some new information, followed by a teaching on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. Includes the story of how the U.S. captured the top five leaders of ISIS. I could hardly view this on Facebook, with all the outages of both sound and picture. I imagine a lot of people are catching up on the news online, since the events were too late at night for the press. YouTube is working fine, though. Spread this one around, especially to people you know who don't have a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Speaker Paul Ryan met Tuesday with the House chaplain he ousted last month, then reinstated after the chaplain complained a Ryan aide told him it might be time to put a non-Catholic in the job. Ryan told reporters he and Jesuit Father Patrick Conroy talked about how to improve pastoral services over coffee Tuesday. Just last month Ryan instructed top aide Jonathan Burks to demand Conroy’s resignation, saying he was dissatisfied with Conroy’s pastoral services. Conroy said he wasn’t told of deficiencies in his performance. He sent a scalding letter to Ryan alleging Burks told him...

California's Catholic bishops back pro-family groups. Texas's start a war with one. America’s Catholic bishops have been rudderless for a lifetime. Unlucky for me. That lifetime was mine. Our bishops have mostly walked in lockstep with the Democratic party since. … The first Irishman got off the boat. Back in the 1940s, this wasn’t a problem. (Those bishops’ older brothers were Democratic ward captains. So it was probably inevitable.) But that party dumped the churchgoing working class for the New Left in 1968. Since then, this alliance has been a catastrophe. Churchy progressivism serves as a Gospel replacement serum. It...

Accusing the security operatives of standing by and watching as Nigerians are massacred, the clergy suggested that Priests and other worshipers alike might have to pick up guns and other weapons in a bid to protect themselves. He also condemned the Government’s inability to provide internal security of lives and properties, urging that it should not push its citizens too hard.Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Onaiyekan Suggests Priests Will Now Have To Protect Themselves; Calls On President Buhari To Retire. In the aftermath of the killing of two Reverend Fathers and other parishioners in a Catholic Church in nBeue State some...

About 80 percent of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh's 200 priests will be assigned to different churches starting in October, part of the six-county diocese's biggest reorganization in nearly three decades. Bishop David Zubik announced the diocesan-wide clergy reassignments Saturday as he unveiled the next phase of a plan to merge 188 individual parishes into 57 final multi-church groupings — a change from 48 groupings proposed last year. Each grouping will have two to five years to submit their merger plan to the bishop, some of which eventually will involve church building closures. No church closures have been determined yet,...

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has asked the bishops of Germany to come to a “unanimous” decision on whether a Protestant spouse who is married to a Catholic may receive the Holy Eucharist in some exceptional cases. The news follows reports that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the Pope’s approval, had already written a letter to German bishops rejecting their proposal to allow some Protestant spouses to receive Holy Communion. According to the reports, Pope Francis did not wish the letter to be made public because it didn’t “fit the narrative and direction” of this...

Fr. Gabriele Brusco, close to family, forced out of England by UK bishopsLIVERPOOL, England (ChurchMilitant.com) - After pressure from the English bishops, a priest who ministered closely to the Alfie Evans' family is being forced to return to Italy. He will not be permitted to attend Alfie's funeral, scheduled for Friday. Father Gabriele Brusco, who offered continual spiritual assistance to the sick toddler in his final days, also withdrew his request for incardination in the diocese of Westminster, after a meeting called by Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington on May 2. "The duration and contents of the interview are top secret,...

If you are actually reading this — yet another article about evangelism — you must at least have a divinely inspired interest in spreading the gospel. Some of you in your capacity as a church leader also feel an obligation as part of your calling to be obedient to the call to evangelize.When we say "the biggest myth" we are referring to a phenomenon that has only presented itself to the church of Jesus Christ in the last three or four generations — in the latter half of the 20th century. For almost 2000 years of Christianity from the time of Jesus to the...

Psalm 33:12 teaches, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.” Our Creator has certainly blessed America in tremendous ways: Abundant natural beauty can be found all across our land, including tropical beaches, green valleys, rich farmlands, towering mountains, and the Great Plains. We have a godly heritage. Fifty-two of the original 55 founding fathers who wrote our Constitution were Christians, and they established our country on Judeo-Christian values. Our land is blessed with plentiful natural resources, including water, oil, ore, and fertile farm land. America’s free enterprise system...

On his visit to Albania, the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow invoked the unity of the Christian Churches to disarm religious radicalism. On the same day, his closest collaborator, Hilarion, pulled the breaks on ecumenical leaps. Between Catholics and Orthodox there is a common faith, but too many "contradictions and misunderstandings", such as the work of Card. Stepinac and that of the Greek-Catholics (uniates).Moscow (AsiaNews) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev), went on an official visit to Albania from April 28 to 30, where he was welcomed by the Archbishop of Tirana Anastas (Janullatos), leader of...

'Come and show your face here in Hoboken'HOBOKEN, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A New Jersey priest has gone on the attack against Church Militant while defending pro-gay Fr. James Martin. In an article published Sunday morning, Fr. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken, New Jersey, went on the attack. In the article, titled "No shrinking violet, Pope Francis punches back," Fr. Santora called this apostolate "notorious of late for calling out any deviation from their self-described orthodoxy, [and] has been getting Jesuit James Martin disinvited from Catholic speaking engagements."Fr. Santora went on to call Fr. Martin's book...

There is more to the document discovery that we have not yet heard. Netanyahu has discussed with Trump. Israel is not looking for a war but will continue to destroy threats to Israel that Iran is setting up in Syria. Macron has a plan that will interest readers of prophecy.

VATICAN, May 2, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — A Vatican conference has wrapped up featuring controversial pop-star Katy Perry speaking on transcendental meditation, disgraced Lettergate monsignor Dario Viganò delivering a talk on “Fake News,” and a “meditating eye” charm bangle given as a gift to select participants. The high-level, no-expense-spared conference was held at the Vatican on April 26-28, and was co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the CURA Foundation, a tax-exempt global health movement. Conference collaborators also included the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Vatican Secretariat for Communications, and the Pontifical Academy for Life. The gathering, called Unite to...

The Church's enemies are delighted about the "current devastating attack" on the divinely given authority of the Church from within her very body and "even at her head", Cardinal Raymond Burke told an audience in Bratislava, Slovakia (April 27). Speaking during the festival Bratislavské Hanusove Dni about marriage and family, he pointed out that the enemies of the Church do not publicly acknowledge their joy in order that right-minded [stupid] people will not realise what is happening "until the destruction has been completed." Therefore, Burke encouraged the Catholics to "soldier on" in defence of the truth, "There can be no...

The Register obtains a copy of the March 22 missive which expresses serious concerns about the recent German bishops’ decision to give Holy Communion to Protestant spouses in some cases. Sources say the seven bishops’ call for clarification, which is being fiercely opposed by the German episcopal conference, has the full support of Benedict XVI.In the March 22 letter, published for the first time in English below, the seven bishops say they “do not consider” the German bishops’ decision on Feb. 20 to allow Protestant spouses to receive Holy Communion in some cases to be “right” because they do not...

The American Bible teacher Dr Chuck Missler has died at the age of 83. Koinonia House, the ministry he founded 45 years ago, reported this morning: "Charles "Chuck" W. Missler passed away peacefully at his home in Reporoa, New Zealand". Best known for his teaching series Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, Dr Missler was a popular author and speaker who ministered across the world before retiring last year. Supporters of his ministry paid tribute to Dr Missler on Twitter, writing he had "gone home to be with the Lord". Dr Missler was formerly a preacher at the 30,000-member Calvary...

Francis Was Elected To Carry Out a Lutheran ReformMonsignor Antonio Livi, a former dean and professor at the Lateran University in Rome, formerly incardinated in the Opus Dei, told Gloria.tv in an exclusive interview that Pope Francis was elected to carry out a – quote – “reform in the Lutheran sense”. According to Livi, in the new Lutheran church-to-come the pope, the bishops and the priests will not be anymore an expression of the sacred but of politics. The Term “People” Is A Rhetorical ImageMonsignor Livi criticizes the term “people” which Pope Francis loves to apply to the Church. Livi...

ROME - At a time when they are promoting a greater participation of the laity in the activities of the Catholic Church and in the country’s political life, the bishops of Brazil are beginning to feel the need to adapt to a new reality: Committed lay Catholics who are outspoken on social media, even against the bishops themselves. The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) gathered for its general assembly in Aparecida April 11 - 20. Although the central theme was actually the formation of priests - an official document on this has been sent to the Vatican for...

The North Indian state of Uttarakhand is now the eighth state in the country to pass legislation that is officially named the "Freedom of Religion Act" but has the allegedly hidden intent to punish those who facilitate religious conversions, especially conversions from Hinduism to Christianity. The latest law carries a jail term of up to two years. The Governor of Uttarakhand, Krishna Kant Paul, signed the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Bill of 2018 into law this month, according to local media reports. The law will be in force as soon as the state government, governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya...

Faith, says Fr. Francois Dermine, O.P., who has been an exorcist for nearly 25 years, is above all “a mystery of salvation; we have to be saved from something, from someone, and this someone is also the devil.”Rome, Italy, Apr 25, 2018 / 01:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- According to one exorcist working in Italy, the average time needed for a person to be freed from demonic influence in an exorcism is taking much longer than it did in even the recent past. Whereas before it was common for a person to be liberated in one session, even if the blessing...